Bottle-to-bottle recycling is the highest and best use of recycled glass. But it requires a consistent supply of high-quality cullet—which can make up to 70% of the raw material mix.

For most commodities, including glass, the method of collecting and processing recyclable materials has a big impact on quality.

• Decrease the value of recovered glass.
• Increase recycling costs.
• Slow container production.
• Reduce glass quality.
• Damage glass manufacturing equipment.

To improve markets—and revenue—for recovered glass:

• Step up quality control to weed out contamination.
• Retain glass size during collection and processing.
• Set up recycling contract incentives with a shared revenue component.
• Use new, high-tech equipment, such as optical sorting.
• Add restaurant, bar, and hotel recycling to expand clean glass recovery.

Use these “best practices”, derived from the Single Stream Recycling Best Practices Implementation Guide completed by Conservatree and Environmental Planning Consultants, when considering a single stream collection program: